Travis Kelce Got Away With Sneaky Move That Helped Patrick Mahomes Score TD vs. Broncos

Football is so back—and so is the largely social media-driven narrative of the Chiefs getting help from the referees.

It took precisely one week of NFL action for Kansas City to storm back onto the field and get a season-opening statement win. Led by a fully healthy Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs crushed the Broncos, 31-10, at Arrowhead Stadium and reminded the rest of the league that they were back, and they’re coming for their fourth Super Bowl berth in five years.

In his first game since tearing his ACL, Mahomes got the ball rolling with the game’s opening touchdown in the first quarter on a 15-yard scamper. Upon first look, there was little to no controversy about it: the Chiefs’ star quarterback took advantage of the space in front of him and used his legs to punch in the score.

Yet, a replay video showed his Chiefs teammate Travis Kelce appearing to get away with a clear hold on Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga. As Mahomes approached the goal line, Hufanga ran up to try to tackle him, but before he could get to Mahomes, Kelce grabbed him from behind and held onto his jersey. Hufanga was only able to swipe his hand at Mahomes’s knee, and despite his visible protests afterward, the refs didn’t throw a flag.

Here’s a look at that play, with ESPN’s announcers even admitting that Kelce should have been called for a penalty:

Travis Kelce gets away with a hold on this touchdown run from Mahomes.

Rules analyst claims this is a tough one for the refs to see that's why they didn't call it pic.twitter.com/srv0qMMxwH
— Rate the Refs (@Rate_the_Refs) September 15, 2026

For those wondering whether the refs had a good look at Kelce’s sneaky move, they did. Here’s a camera angle showing a ref by the goal posts staring directly at the play unfolding, with another official behind Mahomes also getting a pretty clear view of what Kelce did:

So tough to see pic.twitter.com/83a5zMMGrV
— Lorenzo Sorice (@lorenzosorice) September 15, 2026

Very tough to see from his angle... 🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/BonowlcGAf
— Adam Blackhall (@AdamBlackhall) September 15, 2026

Holding is ubiquitous in the NFL, and it’s mostly a matter of what the referees happen to notice in that moment. In this case, the men in stripes likely weren’t paying attention to Kelce while Mahomes was breaking free for his touchdown run, and at the end of the day there’s no excuse for that.

Kelce briefly spoke about the Chiefs’ big Week 1 win over their division rivals as well as Mahomes’s rushing touchdown:

“It just felt good to be out there with my dogs, man,” Kelce told reporters. “We got a really fun team this year. A lot of guys that care about each other and go out there and bust their tails for each other every single day. It’s not necessarily about them or what happened last year, or what happened last year, it’s about what we got going on this year and we’re excited for that.

“... [Mahomes] was saying it all week, man, he just needed that first hit and he’s going to go out there and be Patty Mahomes. You can see the 15 starting to get comfortable again, and I think next week you’ll even see him take his game to the next level.”

Kelce finished with a team-high 71 yards receiving, reeling in three of his five targets. His biggest play came in the third quarter when he broke off for a 59-yard catch-and run that moved him to second place on the franchise’s all-time receiving yards list for tight ends.

Are NFL referees going to miss penalties this year? Absolutely. Will some of them be in favor of the Chiefs? Probably. But because the Chiefs remain one of the league’s most wildly popular—and bitterly hated—teams, they’re going to control the sports news cycles many weeks. They trail only the Rams for the most primetime games in 2026 (six), and chances are high that they’re going to be at the center of more officiating conversations moving forward. That’s just football.

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